Woodpidgeon

Die Stadt Muzikanten (Boompa)

By Caroline Evans
Published: February 2nd, 2010 | 7:00am

Mark Hamilton, the mind behind orchestral-pop group Woodpidgeon, tries to breathe life into a worn genre on Die Stadt Muzikanten. Occasionally, he succeeds. The songs bounce from haunting, ghostlike vocals and distant guitars on “Empty-Hall Sing-Along” to poignant with carefully plucked violins on “Morningside.” There’s even the comedic moments with an obvious nod to Tom Petty on “Woodpidgeon vs. Eagleowl (Strength in Numbers)” — the song begins with “Don’t back down.” To be fair, most of the songs on Die Stadt Muzikanten are slow-moving and mope-y — and minus a handful of upbeat tracks, they tend to be of the sad-bastard variety.

The album begins with its title track featuring an ancient-sounding waltz played out on parlor piano, a small string section, and slightly out-of-tune horns — all overlaid with the snap-crackle-pop of a vinyl recording. The result is something you would expect to find on an old Deutsche Grammophon record. Die Stadt Muzikanten sets a scene, but the album as a whole is not a reproduction of zeitgeist. It’s an ode — an orchestral-pop remembrance — written after Hamilton’s visit to Germany and Austria, the land of his ancestors. Over the course of the album, the parlor piano will occasionally make a cameo and the strings and horns will reappear alongside modern drum kits and whispery pop vocals. The vinyl overlay though will never return, left behind in a time and place it can never escape.

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Boompa